I AM

The Lord Jesus declared to the sceptical Jews, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death’, John 8. 51. In response they scornfully affirmed that His doctrine contradicted the experience of the holiest men in their estimation - Abraham and the prophets. Christ countered that Abraham ‘rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad’, v. 56. Since He was not yet fifty, a round number, also associated with retirement age, Num. 4. 3, it was, in their eyes, impossible for Him to be personally acquainted with the venerable patriarch. The background of such criticism led Him to declare His eternal pre-existence and deity.

Literally rendered, Christ says ‘Before Abraham became (or ‘was born’, ‘came into being’), I AM’. Not ‘I was’, as if He merely preceded the first Hebrew chronologically. Instead, He said ‘I AM’, proclaiming His eternity - for with the timeless God there is always the freshness of the present. Furthermore, this title is well known as the covenant name of the Lord revealed to Israel before the Exodus, Exod. 3. 14. The term emphasizes the self-existence and self-sufficiency of God. He is uncreated, independent of anything outside of Himself. He needs nothing to continue on as He always has been; no material substance can maintain the Almighty. Before anything else was, He was already there. After this world passes away and ‘time shall be no more’, the Lord will still be the great ‘I AM’.

The Jews clearly understood the implications of the Lord Jesus’ appropriation of this title. It was a claim of absolute deity. Since they refused to countenance the possibility of Jesus being God, they branded Him a blasphemer and tried to execute Him. In keeping with His divine mission and sovereign power, however, He passed through their midst unharmed, v. 59. His time was not yet come, and so He departed. The One who was known as the ‘I AM’ would one day voluntarily lay down His life as ‘a ransom for many’, Mark 10. 45. By His death and resurrection He would ensure the fulfilment of His promise that the person who trusted His word would never see death.